Six people broke down Georgia on this show this week. Pete Golding, Will Echoles, Tah’j Butler, John Fourcade, Corey Burton and Todd Wade. None of them compared notes. All six landed in the same place, and none of them led with Trinidad Chambliss.
They led with first down.
Golding said it plainest, Monday at the podium: “If you can’t stop the run versus those guys, it’s a long night and has been for a long time.”
That was the week. The first College Football Playoff rankings, the Kewan Lacy news, a line that refused to move all week — every piece of it ran back through one idea. Georgia does not need a 60-yard play to beat Ole Miss. It needs second-and-4.
Six People, One Answer
Golding gave the recipe and the staffing for it in the same breath. “We got to play really physical up front. We got to be really sound at the second level and have erasers.”
Echoles, Tuesday, went straight to the receipt from a year ago. On Athens: “The first game we didn’t stop them. I don’t think they — they ain’t punt the ball the whole game.” On the Sugar Bowl: “Second game, we got them to punt. So that was a sigh of relief.”
Then he named the job. “Getting them into obvious passing downs, making them punt the ball, and honestly just keeping them off the field.”
Butler said it in fewer words. “They’re a physical group. We just gotta come in and just try to out-physical them.” Asked whether the communication problems from Florida and Texas were fixed: “I feel like we way past that.”
Fourcade, Tuesday’s guest, reduced it to a coin. “If you can stop the run, you’ve got a chance. If you can’t stop the run, you have no chance.”
The numbers back all of them. Georgia runs for 200.1 yards a game, third in the SEC. Ole Miss allows 148.9, 13th. Georgia converts 51.6 percent of its third downs, 47 of 91, second in the league. The Ole Miss defense has allowed 50 of 118, 42.4 percent, which is 113th nationally.
Auburn is the proof in both directions. Ole Miss held the Tigers to 63 rushing yards on 27 carries, 2.3 a crack, with 10 tackles for loss. Auburn still converted 7 of 14 third downs, including 6 of 11 that needed seven yards or more.
Kewan Lacy Is Out, And Golding Said So On Monday
The week’s one piece of hard news came early. “He’s still in there with Pat, still grinding through it,” Golding said. “So it’s a work in progress. We’re not expecting to have him this week. You know, this isn’t something that’s just going to happen overnight.”
That is confirmation, not speculation. The shoulder is not a one-week problem.
So it is Shekai Mills-Knight and Makhi Frazier. Against Auburn, Mills-Knight carried 16 times for 71 yards and a touchdown, both career highs. Frazier went 17 for 56. Chambliss added 65 on seven carries, all 65 of them after halftime.
Fourcade liked the shape of it. “About time they got a bigger running back,” he said, and made the case that a back who stays on the field is worth more in November than a back who does not.
Wade framed it as a style difference rather than a drop-off. “Mills-Knight doesn’t waste any time. He’s going for it.”
Here is the catch nobody on this show glossed over. Georgia allows 86.0 rushing yards per game and 2.7 per carry, second in the SEC. The 224 yards and four rushing touchdowns Ole Miss put up against Auburn are not the target Saturday. The target is enough carries at enough yards to make play-action honest.
The Rankings Came Out. Golding Didn’t Watch.
Asked Monday whether he would have the first CFP reveal on, Golding did not hedge. “You’re damn sure not going to be worried about that if you don’t go out and play really well on Saturday. So, no, I’m not going to be paying attention.”
Tuesday night the committee went Miami, Georgia, Utah, Indiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Texas, UCLA, BYU, and then Ole Miss at No. 10. Georgia at No. 2. Seven SEC teams in the top 14: Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Texas, Ole Miss, Tennessee and LSU.
The players had the same posture. Echoles: “Now we got 2 losses. So right now it’s to the point where every game we play is a playoff game that we got to win.” Cunningham, asked the same question: “We got Georgia next. That’s all that matters.”
What This Show Had That Nobody Else Did
Four things, and we will say plainly which ones are ours.
The model. The Loom model went live this week and returned Ole Miss and Georgia as effectively identical in power rating. A coin flip. That is our number, not a public one, and it is the reason this show spent the week arguing matchups instead of resumes.
The sack collision. Ole Miss has allowed five sacks all season, 0.63 per game, best in the SEC and fourth in the FBS, and has not allowed one in 137 pass-blocking snaps across three games. Georgia has 26 sacks in eight games after totaling 20 all of last season. Chris Cole has 3.5 sacks and 9.5 tackles for loss. Raylen Wilson has four and seven. Something gives Saturday.
The spy read. Wednesday’s crossover with Corey Burton produced the formation point of the week. If Wilson is assigned to Chambliss, Wilson is not rushing Chambliss, and the middle of the field opens behind him. Wade took it further: “From the 40 to 40 is where that game is going to be won.” Ole Miss carries three tight ends who can live in that space — Caleb Odom, Luke Hasz and Michael Smith.
The market that wouldn’t move. Georgia sat at 3.5 from Sunday morning through game day, with the total at 56.5. By Thursday, FanDuel had 64 percent of spread tickets on Georgia and only about half the money. More people took the Bulldogs. Bigger tickets did not.
Two other numbers worth keeping. Ole Miss has scored on 30 of 31 red zone trips, 96.8 percent, best in the SEC and third in the FBS, with the best touchdown rate in the country at 83.9 percent. And the home streak is at 16, dating to a 26-14 win over Oklahoma on Oct. 26, 2024 — the longest active run in the Power 4. Since 2021 Ole Miss is 38-3 at Vaught-Hemingway, outscoring visitors 36.3 to 14.3 during the streak. Kirby Smart is 0-2 in that building.
Two Roster Notes And A Basketball Doubleheader
Tony Mitchell is no longer on the team, and Golding addressed it Monday without being asked twice. “That was something through the spring and the summer that there was some violation of some team rules. And then it just got to the point that it was best for both parties to go in a different direction.”
Luke Ferrelli’s ankle remains the linebacker question. Golding said Ferrelli was banged up all week against Auburn, started as a game-time decision, and came out. “Tah’j stepped in and played really well. I think he’s getting better every week.”
Next door, both basketball teams opened Monday by making the other offense miserable.
The men beat Alcorn State 99-58 and forced 26 turnovers. Chris Beard put the philosophy in one line: “Defense is not just guarding them until they shoot and hoping they miss. You know, it’s trying to get the ball before they shoot.” Budd Clark scored 17 on 7-of-12. Santiago Trouet had 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists with one turnover in 21 minutes off the bench. Christian Brown went for a career-high 12 on 5-of-6 in nine minutes. The bench scored 44.
Trouet, who is from Buenos Aires, Argentina, said the identity was chosen before tip. “We weren’t happy with what we did last game defensively. And we want that to be our identity on the team.”
Beard’s note on Patton Pinkins is worth repeating for anyone wondering about the green light: “I want Patton to shoot the ball every time he’s open.”
The women beat Alcorn State 80-38, up 38-19 at the break and winning the second half 42-19. Jaida Civil had 17 points, six rebounds and five assists in her Ole Miss debut. Doneelah Washington blocked seven shots of the team’s nine. Yolett McPhee-McCuin was not satisfied. “Out of the 23 3s that we took, 8, like 8 of them I would not advise us to take.” And: “Our team is not mature yet.”
The men tip Friday at 7:30 against a team picked to win its conference, the night before the football game. Beard said that out loud himself.
Corrections From Our Own Air
House rule. If we said it wrong, we fix it here rather than letting it slide.
- Monday’s Flagship put Byrum Brown’s rushing total entering the game at 440 yards. Wednesday’s figure was the right one. Brown came in at 479 and sits at 484 for the season after netting five against Ole Miss — 31 yards on 13 carries, minus 26 on four sacks.
- Monday’s Flagship described Texas as the team “that beat Ole Miss in Oxford.” That game was in Austin. Texas won 34-27 on Oct. 24.
- Friday’s Flagship said Auburn ran 27 times for 463 yards. It was 63.
- Shekai Mills-Knight is listed at 6-1 and 220 pounds, not 6-2 or 6-3 at 225 to 230. He is a sophomore, not a redshirt freshman. He is from Montreal, Québec, and he played at Baylor School in Chattanooga. Both of those came up on different days this week and both are correct.
- Jehiem Oatis blocked the extra point. Anthony Robinson III forced the late fumble and Dante Core recovered it.
- Georgia spellings. The linebacker is Raylen Wilson. The tight ends are Lawson Luckie and Jaden Reddell, not “Jake Riddell.” The receiver is Talyn Taylor. And the running back Wednesday’s crossover called “Chris Phillips” is Dwight Phillips Jr.
- The women’s halftime score was 38-19, not 36-19, and the second half was 42-19.
- Jaida Civil, not Jada. Doneelah Washington, not Donella. Budd Clark, with two D’s.
- We gave the Loom model’s margin as a tenth of a point on Tuesday and a hundredth on Wednesday and Friday. Those are two different numbers. One of them is going on the graphic from here on.
- Ole Miss is fourth in the FBS in fewest sacks allowed, not third.
- We said Kirby Smart is 2-0 against Ole Miss in Athens and 0-3 everywhere else. The verified piece is that he is 0-2 at Vaught-Hemingway. We could not confirm the Athens split against a primary source this week, so we are leaving it out until we can.
On The Mic This Week
- Pete Golding, head coach, Monday availability. Ruled Lacy out, handed over the blueprint, confirmed Tony Mitchell is gone, said he would not watch the rankings.
- Will Echoles, defensive tackle, Tuesday. The punt count from Athens versus New Orleans, and the admission that his last offensive touchdown before Saturday came in peewee ball.
- Tah’j Butler, linebacker, Tuesday. The New Orleans kid who watched the Sugar Bowl from his couch because the tickets were too expensive, and decided he wanted that environment.
- Caleb Cunningham, wide receiver, Tuesday. Gave all the credit to receivers coach LD for coaching him hard, and said he stayed to represent Mississippi.
- Kirby Smart, Georgia head coach, Monday. Called Chambliss probably the best quarterback in the country, and answered “how long you got?” when asked how to defend him.
- Chris Beard, men’s basketball, Monday postgame. The clearest articulation yet of what this team’s defense is for.
- Santiago Trouet and Christian Brown, Monday postgame. Trouet on choosing defense as the identity; Brown on a career high in nine minutes.
- Yolett McPhee-McCuin, women’s basketball, Monday postgame. Eight threes she would not have advised, and a team she says is not mature yet.
- John Fourcade, Ole Miss legend, Tuesday guest episode. Picked the Rebels, and wants Gunner Stockton kept in the pocket because “if you can keep Gunnar in there and make him throw the football, he will throw it to you.”
- Corey Burton, formerly on Mark Richt’s Georgia staff, Wednesday crossover. Picked Georgia 34-31 and drew up the play-action menu that comes off Georgia’s B and C gap runs.
- Todd Wade, Ole Miss legend, Friday guest episode. Picked Ole Miss 27-24 and called this the biggest game in his lifetime.
- Kevin Rodgers, Locked On Bets, game-day board. Took Ole Miss plus the points, pointing at a Georgia team that had to be at its best to bounce back against Florida and now goes on the road.
Where It Stands
Ole Miss is 6-2 and No. 10. Georgia is 7-1 and No. 2. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC at Vaught-Hemingway. Georgia has been 3.5 all week.
A win is the 17th straight at home and a program record. It is also one touchdown pass from Chambliss tying Chad Kelly’s school record of 22 straight games with one. And by this show’s reading of the tiebreakers, a win puts Ole Miss in front of the field for Atlanta with Oklahoma on Nov. 14, Wofford on Nov. 21 and Mississippi State on Nov. 27 left.
A loss is a third loss, and there is nothing left on the schedule big enough to climb back over it.
The picks from this week, for the record: Willis 27-21 Ole Miss, Wade 27-24 Ole Miss, Fourcade Ole Miss, Burton 34-31 Georgia.
Everydayers, we will be live for the pregame show, the watch-along and the postgame. Bring your score to the chat.
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